Received your pro-EU propaganda leaflet in the post yet? As you may have heard, the Government is blowing millions of pounds on a public mailshot.

All British households are to receive a copy of this 16-page, glossy leaflet which instructs us — cue a fanfare of trumpets and shouts of acclamation from an obedient populus — in the glories of the European Union.

You lucky, lucky people.

As we speak, valiant employees of Royal Mail are working to bring us this vital document.

It is emblazoned with the crest of Her Majesty’s Government and brims with snapshots, statistics and claims about the positive effect of the EU on Britain.

A message from our rulers, my, my! Across the kingdom, children press their noses to smudged front windows, waiting for sight of their postie to see if this will be their lucky day.

The project is so vast, it almost demands the poetic treatment W. H. Auden gave to the Night Mail in that celebrated 1936 documentary film (‘This is the Night Mail, crossing the border, bringing the cheque and the postal order. . . ’).

Steam trains may no longer be around, but articulated lorries are being loaded with pallets of these Cameroon EU leaflets at remote depots late of night.

Scandal

Sorting office machines chatter and click like crazy as the nation sleeps. Soon after dawn, postmen and women trudge the staircases of residential tower blocks or amble down provincial garden paths — no doubt whistling a cheery air as they step — to bring the uplifting news about Brussels.

‘Economic security, peace and stability,’ it declares. You can almost hear Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony pumping away in the background.

Such co-ordination of proletarian toil is enough, my dears, to bring tears to your eyes. Or perhaps not. For this £9 million junk mailshot is, to put it mildly, controversial.

There are some of us, and I would happily include myself in their number, who would call it a sorry and scurvy little scandal, one that could ultimately limit David Cameron’s premiership, damage the Conservative Party and dent our already battered trust in Whitehall.

The whole thing stinks — stinks like a Belgian wrestler’s jockstrap — and we should demand explanations from those who have authorised it.

It is hard to think of a more blatant stitch-up in public affairs since, well, the last time our country was given a vote on Europe back in 1975, when the Establishment presented the electorate an entirely false prospectus on what was then described as the European Economic Community.

Later, without any public vote on the matter, that segued into the European Community. And then the European Union. And these ruddy Europhiles expect us to trust them again!

The simple fact that such a mailing is happening at all reflects the intense ill-feeling — and, perhaps, of panic in Whitehall — that the public is refusing to be so gullible this time round.

The leaflet certainly appears to break promises made in Parliament by ministers less than a year ago.

The Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, and Europe minister, David Lidington, as good as stated in the Commons last June that no such mailshot would be undertaken by the Government.

I say ‘as good as’ because Mr Lidington’s exact words were ‘we have no intention of legislating to allow the Government to do things such as mailshots, paid advertising or leafleting’. The italics are mine.

I suppose Mr Lidington could claim that the Government did not, indeed, legislate for this mailshot. It just went ahead with it anyway. But if he did try to argue that, he would be guilty of the most disingenuous shading of the spirit of what he said.

As for that unconvincing figure Hammond (how can such an uninspiring little man have been given one of our great offices of state?), he noted that the Remain and Leave campaigns would do their own mailshots.

He added: ‘The Government has no intention of undermining those campaigns.’

Ladies and gentlemen, it has just done precisely that, undermining the Leave campaign with a nakedly pro-EU leaflet that has been funded by taxpayers.

If the Commons had any self-respect, it would accuse Messrs Hammond and Lidington of misleading the House last summer. Ministers who mislead the House were once obliged to resign. Alas, we now live in a Britain where ministers who lie on behalf of the EU get off scot-free. So much for the principle, or lack of principle, behind this leaflet.

Next is the cost: £9 million, says the Government airily, wafting aside objections as if to say that £9 million is a piffling sum.

Is it? The cost may well be higher when you consider production and distribution costs to 27 million homes from Land’s End to John o’Groats.

Schmaltzy

Since when has George Osborne’s Treasury become so careless of the pounds, shillings and pence? And would the public not prefer £9 million to be spent on, say, healthcare or schools or even on repairs to Buckingham Palace?

Instead, it’s being spent on millions of swanky leaflets telling us how to vote in the referendum.

Eurosceptic Liam Fox has called it ‘Juncker Mail’, punning on the name of the European Commission’s notoriously thirsty president Jean-Claude Juncker. With normal junk mail, of course, you can opt out of unwanted advertising (or try to — not that preferential mail schemes always work).

With Government communications, there is no such opt-out. The beggars send you the stuff even if you do not want it.

The timing of this public misinformation service has been highly questionable.

Some people believe it was announced last week in an attempt by spin doctors to obscure the row over David Cameron’s tax affairs.

Others claim, I suspect with rather more cause, that it has been issued sneakily just before spending limits are introduced on the two sides in the referendum campaign.

At this point you may ask: ‘Who is the top civil servant who would have authorised this leaflet?’

To which the answer, surprise, surprise, is Cabinet Secretary ‘Sir Cover-Up’ Jeremy Heywood. A sneaky, last-minute ambush of the Brexiters is a classic Sir Cover-Up tactic.

Then there is the content. It is a depressing (yet somehow simultaneously comical) mixture of dumbed-down rot and schmaltzy cynicism.

One photograph, in the manner of the children’s TV show Play School, shows a June calendar with a red circle round the 23rd, referendum day. Don’t forget to vote, children.

Political correctness has been observed, too. For example, there is a photo of someone who looks like a man doing a supermarket shop and carrying a taupe handbag.

A snapshot of a ‘UK Border’ sign, by the way, has the caption: ‘We control our own borders.’ Ha! I like it! If you think we exert any proper control of our borders, you really must be a politician.

So, what can we do with this darn leaflet, this flimsy wad of piffle, this stapled spiel of Cameroonish baloney?

Reading it is a fruitless enterprise, for you will not learn anything reliable and it may simply cause your pulse to race with irritation.

Can we scrunch it up and use it as litter for the hamster cage? But the paper is non-absorbent. How about paper darts? Wrong shape. Use it for wall cavities? As draught excluders? We could burn it, I suppose, but that might contravene EU carbon emissions targets.

Some have suggested sticking these ridiculous propaganda sheets into an envelope saying ‘return to sender’ and addressing them to Mr Cameron at 10 Downing Street, London.

But that will simply mean that we taxpayers pick up the postal bill — and anyway, the Royal Mail would probably cotton on and refuse.

Ingenious

There is, my friends, a better answer, and it comes from my friend Anthony, a vigorous and ingenious Brexiter. He suggests putting your EU leaflets in an envelope and addressing them to a Freepost address used by Conservative Party fundraisers for their fat-cat donors.

This will mean that the Royal Mail is paid by the recipient.

You might say that this is a little hard on the poor old Tory Party. Well, it is their ruddy leader who has sent out this leaflet. Let them have it out with him.

PS: And that address? It is Joanna George, Freepost RSBB-XRZT-ZTXE, The Conservative Party Foundation, 30 Millbank, London SW1P 4DP.

You can even enclose a little message, telling them precisely what you think of Mr Cameron and Sir Cover-Up’s leaflet.

Wednesday, 13 April 2016

ESSEX POLICE COMMISSIONER ELECTION

I issued the press release below last Wednesday which got a certain amount of coverage in Essex, as I was the only prospective candidate who had stood at the previous election.

I was in some ways a bit sorry to do this as I had been looking forward to the Police Commissioner elections which offer the opportunity to do a few hustings in which, so far, we have saved every single deposit. It simply was not however practical to fund all the elections that we were getting involved in, especially when Winston McKenzie’s potential candidacy was taken into account.

Also, and very importantly, in Essex looking at the field it was clear in any election prior to the 23rd June that UKIP was likely to do quite well.

Furthermore Bob Spink is, as I have said in the press release, an excellent candidate who in fact also has previously been in talks with us as a prospective English Nationalist so I had less difficulty, from a policy point of view, in supporting him and hope that my support and also the reduction in splitting the non-Tory vote may assist in getting Bob elected.

Here is the press release. What do you think?

ESSEX POLICE COMMISSIONER ELECTIONS UPDATE

Robin Tilbrook stands down to support Bob Spink

Robin Tilbrook, the Chairman of the English Democrats Party, who is also an Essex Solicitor and a past President of the Mid Essex Law Society, has announced that he is supporting Bob Spink for Essex Police Commissioner. (Photo attached)

Robin was going to stand again in the Police Commissioner Elections in Essex to be held on 5th May, but today, Thursday, 7th April, as nominations close, Robin has announced that he is not going to stand but instead is supporting Bob Spink and has seconded Bob’s nomination to be the next Essex Police Commissioner.

Robin Tilbrook said:- “I am delighted that Essex is going to have Bob Spink standing in this election. Bob is a really strong candidate who has a very real opportunity to win this very important executive post”.

Robin said:- “In many ways this election is for a ‘Boris’ or ‘Ken’ style Mayor of Essex. The winner will have a very important job to do in setting the policies, priorities, budgets and direction of not only policing in Essex, but also Essex' Fire Service too.”

Robin continued:- “This role needs someone of Bob’s experience. Bob has been in the forces with ‘exemplary’ service and an Engineer and leading Management Consultant. He has also been a Police Authority Member, a County Councillor and a Police Cells Lay Visitor. He was also previously the hardworking MP for Essex’s Castlepoint. He was the Junior Government Home Office Minister (Police & Crime). His parliamentary chairmanships include the United Nations Assn UK, Parliamentary Science & Education Committee."

"What a fantastic and impressive c.v. to put before the People of Essex!"

"I hope this election will see Bob elected and Essex policing set for a period of real and sensible reform to return our Police to their proper role of protecting us from criminals!”

Friday, 8 April 2016

GOVT MIS-USING POLICE COMMISSIONER ELECTION FUNDS for EU PROPAGANDA

The Cabinet Office refused to spend what they claimed was £9 million on an information booklet for the Police Commissioner Elections which was recommended by the Electoral Commission, but instead it is set to waste £9 million on a booklet of propaganda for the European Union about which the Electoral Commission has stated as:- "We don't think the government should have done it, but it's not illegal," and that:- “Electoral Commission recommended that the Government should conduct no taxpayer funded advertising”.

Robin Tilbrook, the Chairman of the English Democrats said that:- “In September 2015 I wrote to ask the Government to do a Mayoral style booklet for the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections and wrote that:-

“the Government has neglected to properly consider and apply the Electoral Commission’s conclusions in their report dated March 2013 that there must be a Mayoral style booklet delivered to each elector. Please could you let me know what you are proposing to do to sort out this mess?”

On the 29th February 2016 David O’Gorman of the Cabinet Office’s Elections Division replied to me stating that despite:-

“the Electoral Commission’s recommendation to provide printed booklets of candidate election addresses … there are no plans to provide the booklets to all eligible households in May 2016, given it is estimated that to do so would cost up to £9m.”

Robin Tilbrook continued:- “So it is now crystal clear that this is a government which refused to spend £9 million on a Mayoral style booklet which was recommended by the Electoral Commission to enable the Police Commissioner elections to be conducted fairly. Instead it is determined misuse that £9 million to try to unfairly skew the results of the EU referendum. This is directly against the Electoral Commission’s advice. This is a striking illustration of the rottenness at the heart of the British Government and, as the old saying goes:- “A fish rots from its head”!”

Saturday, 2 April 2016

Bureaucracy defeats Winston McKenzie’s London Mayoral Campaign

Winston McKenzie was defeated yesterday not by democracy but by bureaucracy.

The hurdles to stand in the London Mayoralty have deliberately been made more difficult than for any other elected position in the whole country. This has been done by the British Political Establishment deliberately to frustrate democracy and to maintain their grip on power.

To stand the cost is phenomenal at £20,000 and the form filling is a daunting task for those whose campaign coffers are not filled by Big Business or Big Donors. 330 Electors signatures have to be collected, 10 from each of the 33 London Boroughs and if even one of those is a duplicate then a candidate will be prevented from standing!

Robin Tilbrook, the Chairman of the English Democrats’ said:- “Winston McKenzie will be back!”.

Winston said:- “Just like another Winston said in sterner times I also say “We shall never surrender". I shall fight on because England’s Cause is too important to be given up whatever the hurdles that must be overcome!”